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Come Fan with UsSaturday, June 20, 2026

Olympic opening ceremony goes hard with Gojira, flames, and a headless Marie Antoinette

Who saw this coming?

James Dator
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.

The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics wasn’t lacking for style, and unquestionably the most stunning moment came when French metal bad Gojira had a performance straight out of Mad Max, completely with a screaming, headless Marie Antoinette.

There’s really nothing else to say here. What we witnessed was one of the most stunning, incredible, slightly gross, weird, perfect moments of any opening ceremony. I don’t think anyone had a Gojira performance on their bingo card, but there’s no doubt they are icons of French music — and now they’re the first heavy metal band to ever perform at an opening ceremony.

Formed in 1996, the band’s name was originally “Godzilla,” before adopting the new spelling. The band are icons of world heavy metal, winning numerous award over their almost 30-year career, while Mario Duplantier of Gojira is widely regarded as one of the best metal drummers of all time.

I’m going to need to watch this at least 20 more times, because I can’t believe it happened.

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